subject: Why Lenses Should Be In The Top Ten Inventions List [print this page] Lists fascinate the British, Top Rock bands, best sports cars, ten best soap opera's, as long as it can be debated we love lists.
Tapping into this rich part of the national psyche are major publications like the Sunday Times Rich List, the Observer's list of Top Universities in the World and The Book of Origins. The daddy of all lists is of course The Guinness Book of World Records which has been continuously published since 1955. t claims to be the home of the largest, smallest, speediest, slowest, oldest, youngest, longest, and shortest of almost everything in human history and the natural world.
Jeremy Clarkson has gone to the other end of the scale and is now making a decent second income by looking at the worst things around. His series of books, beginning with Born to be Riled in 1999 to How Hard Can it Be? in 2010, list cost overruns on road improvements, worst cars on the road (Ford Orion, Vauxhall Vectra and Perodia Kelisa) and other stuff that annoy and frustrate him. Some of his lists are 'tongue in cheek', not meant to be taken too seriously, but on one memorable occasion, as he was accepting an honorary degree at Oxford Brookes University, Rebecca Lush, a transport activist, pushed a custard pie into his face. To his credit, Clarkson wiped the mess off his face and said, "Good shot." It was rumoured that he added under his breath, "for an ugly bitch," but that was never proved.
Somewhere out there in cyberspace, exists a list of the greatest inventions of all time. The list will include the motor car and the steam locomotive; products that, in their time have helped free up the world and move more people around the globe than any other form of transport. Also on the list will be the computer, the telephone and television. All depend to a greater or lesser degree on harnessing electricity for their operation. And somewhere in the list will be inventions that can't be traced back to the inventor such as the wheel, fire and shoes.
So how do you rate the value of an invention? Desirability? Convenience? Usefulness? Civilising effect? Greatest benefit for the least cost?
Factor in a cost/benefit analysis, and the stand-out invention of all time must be the lens. This relatively basic piece of formed plastic or glass , when set into a telescope has enabled men to observe the far reaches of the solar system and the universe beyond. Fitted into a microscope, the lens shows the tiniest details imaginable. More important than either of these, when fitted into a pair of prescription spectacles or glasses, lenses allow more than 60% of the human population of the world, possibly as many as five billion people, to see properly. No other man-made product can approach this penetration at such low cost.
